WHILE INTERNING AS A COLLEGE STUDENT with an aerospace company, I had the task of implementing a design fix for a satellite. The rest of the engineering team wanted to move on to more exciting projects, but the job left to me was probably too important and complex to have been given to me, a novice. I often sought help from others on the team, which resulted in their giving me a bad review at the end of the summer. I had been too worried and self-involved about messing up, while they had wanted more from me than maybe they should have. Differences like these are unfortunate. Narrow views based on a personal evaluation of circumstances can keep even the most sincere people from best serving an end purpose, and consequently, themselves.
At the heart of preoccupation with how things look from one's own standpoint is the belief that we're self-acting beings with minds of our own needing to compete for a good or joy that's outside of ourselves. With this perspective comes the feeling that other people, or conditions controlled by others, can have power over the good we experience. Good seems limited and circumstantial. Progress is held up because people become spellbound by mistaken personal perceptions, and life has too much "he says/she says."
However, the fact is that joy and good are really states of consciousness. This is what Jesus explained when he spoke of the kingdom of God within (see Luke 17:21). Since we are each individual ideas of God, divine Mind, this "kingdom of God"—the conscious state of goodness—is experienced individually. But with only one Mind or Soul, the only "I" of the universe, each individual must actually see in his or her experience the good of everyone else in order to fully coincide with good. And this divinely bestowed good is always available to all.
